


gone too far out of town

by sammyspreadyourwings



Series: Rock Around the October (Rocktober 2020) [22]
Category: Bohemian Rhapsody (Movie 2018), Queen (Band)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Neutral End, Depression, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Late Night Conversations, Late at Night, Post 1991, Sad Brian May, Sad Roger Taylor (Queen)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:27:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27185173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sammyspreadyourwings/pseuds/sammyspreadyourwings
Summary: Roger reads 'One New Voicemail' and his universe tries collapsing in on itself when he listens to it.
Relationships: Brian May & Roger Taylor
Series: Rock Around the October (Rocktober 2020) [22]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1952968
Comments: 8
Kudos: 37





	gone too far out of town

**Author's Note:**

> Mind the tags!  
> Yes, this takes place post-November 1991 but it never explicitly mentions that.  
> A two-for-one on this one
> 
> Bingo Prompt: Craving  
> Rocktober Prompt: Driving

**One New Voicemail.**

Roger squints at his phone. The brightness is blinding him. He doesn’t remember anyone calling but his phone must have vibrated off the nightstand. It did, he woke up when he heard it smack against the floor but he had gone straight back to bed. He doesn’t know what wakes him up the second time, but something is telling him that he needs to check his phone. Slightly worried but confident that it isn’t anything important, he unlocks the phone and types the code to hear the message.

_“Hey, Rog.”_

Brian’s staticky voice comes through and it makes Roger frown. Brian sounds sober – although it is not uncommon for him to lose track of time.

 _“I don’t know who else to call…”_ there is a shaky breath, _“but I saw your name and… I need help.”_

Roger squeezes the phone between his head and shoulder while finding something other than boxer shorts to wear and looking for his keys.

_“Tonight I drove to the place I know I could flip my car… but the only reason I didn’t is that someone else was on the road.”_

With his heart hammering in his chest, his hands finally close around the cold metal of his keys – flung to the ground when he tossed his coat over a chair. He has no idea where Brian is but he knows where Brian likes to go.

_“I just pulled over at the first park I saw. I don’t know – there is a Tesco across the street. Sorry, Rog.”_

The message ends. Roger is pulling up Tesco locations on google, only two are close to a park. He looks at the confusing map of London streets… maybe he could find where Brian was…

No. He picks the furthest store that matches Brian’s description, figuring that it will save time if he has to come back into the city, not to mention it is a short drive from the highway exits. He splashes through the water lingering in the driveway, the cold sinking through to the bones of his bare feet. He looks down at the now soaked cuffs of his jeans. Roger doesn’t want to waste the time putting shoes on – and he probably has a pair in the back, thrown away in frustration if he needs him.

It takes some coaxing from Roger, but the car finally starts.

He doesn’t know how many traffic laws he broke or how no one saw him break. All he knows is the mechanically chipper voice of Google telling him where to go.

The first park looks like it is going to be empty, but then he sees a man lingering under the streetlight, filled with dark curls. Roger drives a little faster in the parking lot before seeing that these curls are blond. He smacks his hands against the wheel in frustration, causing the horn to blare and scaring the man half to death.

Not that he stays long enough to notice but he is sure the man is cursing him out. Roger hesitates to pull out onto the street long enough to hit the directions key for the second potential sight. He pulls out onto the empty street – and it is starting to rain – when he realizes that if Brian called him then he must have his phone.

Roger nearly shouts the voice command for his phone to call Brian. For now, he only has to go straight so he isn’t worried about getting lost. The dial tone keeps ringing and ringing and ringing, and Roger thinks he is going to lose his mind at this stoplight, but there are other people this time so he can’t blow through it.

The call finally ends with _the caller you have dialed cannot be reached_ because _of course_ Brian would never bother to set up his voicemail months after getting a new phone and number despite saying that he would. Roger slams his hand into the steering wheel again, before the light turns green. He nearly spins out slamming his foot into the gas, but he gains traction quickly enough.

His knuckles are white as he follows Google’s direction, her voice growing annoyingly placid as panic builds in his chest. His whole world could have ended two hours ago and Google doesn’t care. Roger curses himself for going back to sleep that first time – he doesn’t know how long between the first time he woke up and the second, but it was too long.

Brian could have moved on from whatever park he made the call in. Roger has no way of knowing where he is and now Brian is ignoring his calls.

_“In the next 152 meters, your destination will be on the right.”_

Roger silences the phone as he turns into the parking lot. This time he sees on care. Blessedly nondescript, and a person sits cross-legged on the hood of the car despite the rain getting heavier and heavier with each passing minute. He pulls up next to the vehicle, praying that this isn’t another case of hopefully mistaken identity.

For some reason, he is surprised that it is Brian sitting on the hood of his car. His hair hangs around his face in lanky ribbons. It is the only thing he can make out in the brief second his headlights illuminate the world. Roger shoves the door everything he hadn’t been aware he was thinking falls out of his head and he ends up crawling on top of the car hood and tugging Brian into his chest.

“You got my call,” Brian says mildly.

As though that hadn’t been the second-worst call Roger has gotten in his life, certainly the most terrifying.

“Next time keep calling you bloody wanker,” Roger mumbles, “you know I’ll answer. Annoyed if nothing else.”

Brian hums, as though considering the thought. Roger knows that he won’t get through to Brian like this – whatever emotion storm Brian had gone through to get to this point has probably left him with the inability to consider anything else. Roger reaches up to cup the back of Brian’s head and keeps it pressed tightly against the socket between his neck and shoulder.

He doesn’t think he has ever felt this indebted to a strange that happened to follow Brian around that turn or wherever it was.

For now, though, he will sit barefooted and exhausted on the hood of this car with Brian existing next to him and feel each drop of rain as it hits his face.

**Author's Note:**

> As always, please leave your thoughts and comments below or come talk to me on tumblr!


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